Review by tlbepson  - Location: Reston,Fairfax,VA
- Cost: $90 per month
Good "TV signal rarely, if ever, goes out - spoke too soon, lost stb this evening (Saturday) and I have to wait until Tuesday for appt"
Bad "Lousy customer/tech support because of poor corporate level policies, crappy closed caption support"
Overall "I *loathe* Comcast & as of 6/3/13 have finally left"
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Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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EDIT 6/25/13: I have finally left Comcast and switch completely to Verizon FiOS by adding TV to my FiOS broadband and phone. I made the decision because I got tired of Comcast's constant price increases when there had been no improvements in service. I was able to get semi-decent pricing for triple-play with FiOS. I have no great love for Verizon but on a practical level, since I wasn't interested in switching to Comcast for broadband and phone, switching to FiOS for TV made more sense particularly as I was able to get the problem with closed captions with FiOS stb sorted out--basically, the FiOS Cisco CHS335HDC stb digital closed caption options all function properly unlike the FiOS Motorola stb's.
Original Review:
I have been a Comcast customer since 1988 and currently only have their cable tv service. Since their merger/takeover of NBC, their customer/tech support is even worse than it used to be. The problem is not (generally) with the individual support person but with corporate policies that don't provide their front-line people with the information/knowledge they need to do their jobs, the power to make decisions to fix things--basically, their support reps are sacrificial fodder because as a corporation, Comcast couldn't care any less about their employees or their customers. They've taken over the old Ma Bell refrain "We're THE PHONE COMPANY! We don't have to care" and made it their own.
After my latest go-round with Comcast in which I was informed that I would now be charged for dvr service Comcast activated but I'd never requested, don't want and never used on my Scientific Atlanta/Cisco Explorer 8300HD cable box--had never been active in all the *years* I had box--but now, even though Comcast turned the service on, Comcast (mysteriously) cannot turn it off so I was told I had to get a new cable box or pay an extra $16-$17/month for something I didn't order or want.
When I asked for a service appointment I was told that Comcast would charge me! Ended going to/from the local Comcast office 4 times, spending an entire day trying to get the closed captioning to work properly because Comcast can't be bothered to actually document the settings on their set top boxes. UGH!
I am seriously looking into other cable tv providers in my area.
EDIT (6/17/12): As I noted in my reply to user "Comcaster" (below), the new stb I have (RNG200N) essentially died last night at 9:20pm with a message "your stb is not authorized" and I spent 2.5 hours (until midnight) on the phone (very difficult due to my hearing loss) trying to get the stb fixed without success. Today (Sunday) I decided to try Comcast live chat to see if they could help. Less than 3 minutes into the chat, the stb was fixed!
I asked the chat rep what she'd done and she said " I just double checked the codes on the account and corrected it to make your cable box work."
Now WHY!!!??? couldn't one of the many, many Comcast phone reps I talked with last night do that?!
member for 11.6 years, 389 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 102 days ago
Comments:
 mcbighamPremium
join:2004-10-10
Huntsville, AL | I feel your pain Comcast is the worst company I have ever dealt with.
I came here to update my review on Comcast and see that I am not treated special, they treat all their customers the same.
»/comment/83528 | |
| | | True The problem is not (generally) with the individual support person but with corporate policies that don't provide their front-line people with the information/knowledge they need to do their jobs, the power to make decisions to fix things--basically, their support reps are sacrificial fodder because as a corporation, Comcast couldn't care any less about their employees or their customers. They've taken over the old Ma Bell refrain "We're THE PHONE COMPANY! We don't have to care" and made it their own. My friend you have no idea how true that statement is. I know, I am one of the employees referenced. | |
|  | tlbepsonPremium
join:2002-02-09
Reston, VA Reviews:
 ·Comcast
2 edits | Re: True I have just spent the last 2.5 hours!!! trying to get my cable box to come back online. I have a hearing loss which makes using the phone (even my special one) very difficult. If the line transferring me to someone who was supposed to be able to help didn't get dropped, then the connection was terrible or they couldn't help me or I waited and waited and waited on hold only for the connection to drop yet again. The end result it is now about midnight--lost the cable box about 9:20 right in the middle of one of the few programs on tv I actually enjoy and missed the rest of it--and I now have an appointment for Tuesday between 10-11am for a tech to come to fix the problem so no tv for me between now (Saturday night) and Tuesday
I NEVER, EVER had a problem with the SA 8300HD stb in all the years that I had it--I spoke too soon (or jinxed myself) about never losing the tv signal.
All of the phone reps were very courteous and patient (there's a bit of a lag in the conversation because I have to wait for the speech-to-text conversion to display on the screen on my phone) but really, what does it matter if they can't fix stuff, the transfers are dropped (or misdirected to Houston, TX when I'm in VA), phone menus are so complex, wait times are eons with no notice of where you are in the queue. I feel sorry for the employees--I always make a point to tell them that I know it's not their fault but really...it's exhausting and frustrating! UGH! | |
| | | | | Re: True I gotta be honest its maddening to me to me to see people post things like this all the time, if you spent half as much effort on finding a company you dont hate instead of continuing to use a company you do then i would guess your life would signifigantly improve! Stop complaining and get rid of comcast if you are unhappy, I swear misery loves company... | |
| | | | tlbepsonPremium
join:2002-02-09
Reston, VA Reviews:
·Comcast
1 edit | Re: True You have no idea what time and effort I have put in to investigating other cable tv companies because it has nothing to do with outlining my experiences with Comcast as a cable tv provider--you'll note that this is a REVIEW of Comcast as a cable tv provider in the REVIEW section. | |
| | | | Reviews:
·Comcast
| It would be cool if Comcast actually had competition in the area where I live. It's an unregulated monopoly, and I have no other choices or any recourse. They charge through the nose, but do deliver on the cable TV side.
For their ISP services, I'm in the "I loathe Comcast" camp...they have refused to build out the infrastructure to deliver the internet download speed I'm paying for. I'm paying for 12Mb/s download speed, and get 2Mb/s in the evening on a good day. That sucks, but nothing I can do. | |
| | | | | tlbepsonPremium
join:2002-02-09
Reston, VA Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: True Comcast was as my first broadband provider--when broadband was just beginning to be "reasonably" priced--because at the time it would have taken Verizon 3-5 weeks to provide service and I would have only gotten their slowest speed while Comcast offered installation 2 days after talking with them, higher speed and if memory serves, a not too bad price. It's been a good number of years but I don't remember having a lot of problems with their broadband service--at that time there not a lot of users hanging on the system. Needless to say, this was *well before* the Comcast/NBC takeover/merger.
A few of years later, I went with Verizon DSL because I could get higher speed for less money than Comcast and Verizon gave me a $70-$80 credit for switching. I don't remember having too many problems with Verizon's DSL which continued to be reasonably priced and when my condo complex was wired for FiOS I switched to that.
Sorry that you don't have alternative options because I can imagine it's frustrating not getting anywhere near the speed you are paying for--I'm surprised that you don't have more choices in Santa Cruz. | |
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